Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by busterthecat:

Had on tap at Lord Hobo the other night and was glad that I had picked up a bottle prior. This tasting is of the 22oz bomber picked up. Bottled date 06/25/11. Poured into an Allagash chalice.

A- Pours a semi-transparent brown hue from bottle which sits a nice darker brown in the glass. A fizzy foamy khaki head forms before fading to a foamy cap that leaves some lacing.

S- A blend of smooth and bittersweet chocolate along with a good dose of grapefruit hops. Some slight pine also comes through. Good.

T- Good mix of chocolate and hops upfront. A hop forward beer for sure. The body is of roasted and chocolate malt and adds some depth. The finish is full of citrus rind (orange and grapefruit). Some light piney hops also peak through along with some zingy bite. The orange they use seems to come in the end.

M- Medium bodied and medium flavor. The bitter hops linger for a while on the palate. The feel goes from wet to dry pretty quickly. Could be a bit thicker, but its ok for a 6% ABV.

Overall- a good Black Ale. I would want to taste this up against Hoppy Feet to see how they compare. Worth trying for $5 a bomber if you like black ales. Easy to drink and put down a 22oz solo. The on-tap version had a creamier feel, but was similar in aroma and taste.

More User Reviews:

Poured a deep cola color with a off white head that never really fully subsided.Roast and fruity esters in the nose,not much hop presence to speak of.Roasted with a little char on the palate with that candied orange peel element coming thru in the finish.A pretty good beer,not much hop presence for the style, and not overly complex but its not bad.

Pours a half fingers worth of a mocha colored head. A thin ring of head remains and a good bit of lacing. Body is black, a hint of brown is around the edges.

Smells of roasted malts, floral resinous dank hops. I gets lots of roast on this one. A hint of bready yeast.

Tastes like a stout with out the heavy mouthfeel. A firm bitterness comes with the earthy, dank oily hops presence. The roasted malts sit on your tongue and coat your mouth like sucking on some camp fire ashes.

Mouthfeel is medium thin, medium low carbonation. The finish is firmly bitter with a piney, earthy and tobacco coating oiliness.

I think this one does embody what i think a black IPA is. Roasty, not very sweet in any way, a firm lingering bitterness and medium thin body. Bravo to Clown shoes for this one.

Glad to finally have Clown Shoes distributed in Texas. Always a fan of Black IPAs and Clown Shoes brought three new ones into the state.

The beer pours a dark brown to black color with an off-white head. The aroma is full of chocolate and roasted malt with some strong pine notes from the hops.

The flavor has a strong resinous pine component that really cuts through the chocolate malt. The beer is very dry and the bitterness is a little higher than I expected it to be. The beer is fairly easy to drink.

Pours out straight black, small head to it, closest to a light beige/mocha type color. Mildly hoppy aroma, a little bit citrus, but barely.

Taste, some bitterness, the usual type of bitterness you get in black ales and the dehusked whatnot. Left with a chalky mouthfeel at times and that peculiar bitterness you get in this style of beer where the hop profile fails to jive with the bitterness. Needs more citrus and tropical hop mouthfeel with these. Frankly, black ales are difficult to make when they're intended to be hoppy, black ipas if you will.

This one just wasn't all that enjoyable the back half, not bad, but not worth the purchase. Still had some minor stout qualities, didn't play up the ipa qualities.

Fresh from Premiere Gourmet. Opaque black bodied Average mouthfeel, aggressive carbonated. Average mouthfeel. The roast without significant hops compared to a black IPA.Was not getting much citrus, more is better. One dimensional. Rough, yet still very good drinkability.WOrth a try.

Pours pitch black with a mountain of thick, dense head that has great retention. The nose reveals piny, citrusy hop aromas and some chocolate and roasted malts. There is also a faint coffee aroma. The flavor is exactly like the nose. There is some chocolate and roasted malts up front with laid back coffee notes followed by faint pine and citrus hops. The body is thin but smooth and has light carbonation.

This is a little disappointing. The hop character is a little subdued and the mouthfeel is very thin. It's easy to drink and the malt character is good though it's not very complex. I would go for one of Clown Shoes other Black IPAs before this one.

The beer poured a pitch black with a ecru head that has great retention and is leaving some lace. The nose reveals slight piny, citrusy hop aromas and robust chocolate, coffee and roasted malts. The flavor is exactly like the nose. There is some chocolate and roasted malts up front with laid back coffee notes followed by faint pine and citrus hops. The body is light to medium but smooth and has light carbonation. Overall a decent beer almost a porter in my opinion.

Pours a dark clear ruby, with a couple fingers of light mocha head. This retains with a big creamy dollop of foam in the middle of the glass, leaving back thick creamy lacing that sticks to the sides in a sticky latticework. The aroma smells of leafy hops and green citrus with a good bit of peppery spice mixed in that gives this a forceful airiness up front of the nose. Things get a little darker along the back as roasted coffee and chocolate flavors emerge but it’s those fresh hops that mostly control this.

Green citric bitterness is at the forefront of the taste, spreading green pith and zippy spice notes out through the profile and into the finish. The malts have much more of a presence this time around, with a smooth chocolate sweetness and crunchy roasted (but a not overly burnt) character mixed in. Like the nose though, the hops bring most of the aggressiveness, leaving this dry and bitter on the finish with just a touch of a lingering burnt feel. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, with a smooth and silky feel up front that then gets much more firm and crisp as this moves along the back of the profile. The ABV doesn’t seem like much of a factor here.

This was a solid Black Ale but didn’t do a whole lot to distinguish itself from what has started to become a glut of new takes on the style that are out on the market right now. Hops and dark malt could be a bit more in unison here but the body at least had a smooth crispness to it that helped keep this drinking easy.